Monday, 13 May 2013

'if this isn't a challenge, I don't know what is' - Zamukulungisa Primary School - Day 1

Millie Jones writes here about her groups 3 day stint at Zamukulungisa School -

Alarms began to wake us at 6.45 and one by one we reluctantly began to
get ourselves ready for the day ahead. For a brief moment I longed for
my bed in Twickenham- my feet were numb and although I was was wearing
five layers I was still freezing; we were beginning to realise that
Africa's winter wasn't the tropical climate we had planned for. These
dramas were quickly erased over breakfast and the excitement and
speculation about what the day ahead would bring quickly took over.

After dropping Patsy and half of the group off at their school we
finally arrived at our school. We tried to reserved judgment as much as
possible with the general acknowledgment being 'this is different'. We
briefly met the principle and the other teachers who, compared to the
previous day, greeted us rather formally. There was a brief discussion
and I opted to be placed in a grade four English class, naively I
assumed that at least the teacher would have a good level of English- I
was in for a surprise.

On arriving into the class the teacher asked me 'what are you doing', I
replied 'I will just be observing your class'. Clearly this word
'observing' was misunderstood as she continued tell me that I had an
hour to teach them anything. I felt helpless. I managed to explain that
I was to watch rather than lead for the first hour and so she taught
and I marked their work- trying to take on board as much as I could for
when I would be in her position.

The children break at 10am for breakfast and after the teacher
expressing her passion for having me try some I was brought a huge bowl
of rice and beans. It was nice- very salty and very filling. I only ate a
small amount, but the children who probably wouldn't have a proper meal
until the next day, ate as much as they could.

After break I lead an hour long lesson that focused on me communicating
with the students in English. We played a few games and sang some call
and response songs, overall it was an extremely difficult experience. I
was beginning to understand how different the students level of English
was to that of the previous day, and mainly how that lack of a common
language calls for a reevaluation of how every exercise is executed. The
lesson ended and I felt drained but I knew that I had learnt a lot and
that it could only get better.

Our drama workshop went more positively and we were instantly able to
put into action all of things we had learnt from our individual
experiences that morning; we used exercises that took little explanation
and that we could demonstrate clearly, used call and response songs,
and repeated instructions as much as possible. The group clearly enjoyed
using their imaginations and were happy to perform, with more planning
we knew we could create some great work with them.

The bus journey back to the principles house was hard- I think our group
wanted to quietly reflect on the challenges of the day and how these
could be addressed in our work tomorrow, but the morale of our students
who had been at the other school didn't allow for that. We all responded
to their enthusiastic intrigue as best as possible answering all if
their questions as positively yet truthfully as we could; it was clear
that we had had quite contrasting days.

We are all determined to make tomorrow a better day and everyone has
been busy sharing experiences and planning lessons all night, and now
after assisting in making dinner (I made salad and almost used cabbage
instead of lettuce), and searching my room for insects, I am wearing
half of my suitcase, preparing myself for another tough night.